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tv   CBS Evening News  CBS  December 3, 2011 6:00pm-6:30pm PST

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>> mitchell: tonight, herman cain calls a halt to his run for the presidency. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign. >> mitchell: jan crawford reports on the the latest twist in the republican road to the presidential nomination. president obama steps up the pressure on the payroll tax fight. whit johnson looks at what it means for taxpayers' wallets. she's a small business owner who has been battling the bank for the credit she needs to expand. we'll tell you how her fight turned out. and occupy wall street in search of a plan b. cynthia bowers looks at what the movement is planning now that most cities have closed the protest camps. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news"
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with russ mitchell. >> mitchell: and good evening. and then there were seven. acknowledging the harm charges of sexual misconduct have inflicted on his family, herman cain told his supporters today he was suspending his campaign for the republican nomination. that leaves seven candidates still in the race and a lot of questions about who stands to benefit. political correspondent jan crawford was in atlanta today for the cain announcement. jan, good evening. >> reporter: well, good evening, russ. cain was once a front-runner for the nomination but then came allegations of sexual misconduct, an accusation of an extramarital affair. today he suspended his bid for the white house. >> i am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction. >> reporter: cain continued to deny the allegations that rocked his campaign. >> these false and unproved allegations continue to be spinned in the media and then the court of public opinion.
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>> reporter: after the announcement came, cain told cbs news he made the decision-- his own. >> my wife didn't say do it or don't do it. she just said i'll summit you whenever way. i recognize the pain in her and the pain it was causing her and nigh m.r.i. family the constant spinning, spinning, and spinning and the allegations were false and untrue to begin with. that wasn't something i wanted my family to continue to go through. >> reporter: is there anything you would have done differently looking back? >> no, no, nothing. >> reporter: any regrets? >> i have no regrets. >> reporter: cain had run an unconventional campaign and his exit was unverbal, too. hundreds of cheering of supporters gathered here for what was supposed to be the opening of his new georgia headquarters. it sounded like a rally, especially when cain arrived holding hands with his wife, gloria. supporters were devastated by his announcement, including erica daniel. >> i'm sad for a lot of reasons. because i really had hope for our country with him.
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>> reporter: former godfarther's pizza executive enjoyed broad appeal as an inspiring speaker with a simplified plan to put a flat 9% tax on sales, income, and corporations. >> 9-9-9! >> reporter: but the allegations of sexual harassment and then an affair simply were too much. at the event today, disappointed supporters like laura schaeffer said they were angry cain was forced out. >> the media did this to him. they took a decent, upstanding man and they shredded him with lies. >> reporter: now i spoke with cain's wife, gloria, after the event. she said cain had made his decision before he got home last night but that she would have supported him either way, that she'd gone back and forth over whether or not he should get out of the race. today cain said he will continue to be involved in conservative dennis kozlowskis in speeches across the country and he will be endorsing a candidate. >> mitchell: jan crawford in atlanta, thanks a lot. for more on the likely impact of cain's withdrawal, we are joined
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by cbs news political analyst john dickerson. what does cain's withdrawal or suspension of his campaign do for the republican race? >> what it means for mr. cain is he used the specific language "suspend." the difference between that and ending your campaign is when you suspend you can still get the federal matching fund. if he ended it he wouldn't be able to get those. what it means for the larger race, though, is that it's romney versus gingrich race with ron paul always out there, somebody you have to look to. but this solidifies ever more that it's a two-man race. >> mitchell: cain lost a lot of support in the last few weeks. however, he still had a lot of supporters out there. where are those folks likely to go? >> the cain voters who had been leaving him looked like they were pretty much going to newt gingrich, but the hard-core supporters who were left, those will be interesting. they liked cain because he was not a washington politician, not a member of the establishment. newt gingrich is both of those things. the core supporters also liked the fact he was a businessman. that could benefit mitt romney. it is unlikely the cain core
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supporters will be distributed through the remaining candidates. >> mitchell: john dickerson in washington, thanks a lot. turning now to the penn state scandal, former assistant football coach jerry sandusky said today he never molested young boys. he said prosecutors have twisted and distorted his work with children. elaine quijano has the latest. >> reporter: for the it could same since he was chargelast month, jerry sandusky denied sexually abusing any children. in a "new york times" interview, he said, "these allegations are false. i didn't do those things. i never engaged in sexual acts with these young kids." the 67-year-old also says he never discussed any accusations of misconduct with former penn state football coach joe paterno. "i don't know that he didn't know. i know that he never said anything do me. i know that." investigators say sandusky used his charity for underprivileged kids, the second mile, to prey
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on his victims. he does not deny showering and sleeping alone with kids in hotel rooms but says the interactions were innocent. "the environment was family like. all the times were precious times. it was important times, and so i guess it just happened that way. i don't know." sandusky also tried to explain this response during an nbc interview. >> are you sexually attracted to young boys, to underaged boys? >> am i sexually attracted to underaged boys? >> yes. >> sexually attracted? you know, no. i-- i enjoy young people. >> reporter: sandusky now says he was trying to make sense of the question. "if i say no, i am not attracted to boys, that's not the truth because i am attracted to young people-- boys, girls." at that point, sandusky's lawyer interjected, yeah, but not sexually." the lawyer suggested sandusky enjoyed spending time with young people and sandusky agreed. russ. >> mitchell: elaine quijano, thank you. turning overseas now, u.s.
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forces are scheduled to be out of iraqi by the end of the month, but a violent attack earlier this week in the heart of baghdad is raising questions about whether iraqi forces will be up to the job of maintaining security. our jim axelrod is in baghdad tonight. jim, good evening. let me ask you, first of all, obviously, this car bomb earlier this week a cause of great concern. even more so now that iraq's prime minister maliki believes it was an attempt to his life. what can you tell bus that? >> reporter: russ, this is actually the third version of an explanation for the car bomb. frankly, we don't know which, if any to believe. but whatever the reason, the car bomb is especially alarming because of where it happened. the green zone, that four-square-mile area where the u.s. embassy is located. for years it's been thought of as the safest part of the city. the fact that somebody could actually get a car bomb inside the green zone and detonate it cast doubt on the ability of the iraqi security forces to keep the peace here. but if it was, indeed, an attempt too maliki's life, that just raises the stakes.
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now as the troop draw-down continues, the u.s. is handing over more and more surf to the iraqis, and there is growing concern about the safety of the americans who will be staying here. >> mitchell: jim, of course, you were one of the first american correspondents until the baghdad area back in 2003 and the invasion, from your observation at this point, how have things changed since then? >> reporter: well, in the beginning of the week, as we were moving around the city, i mean, it was very easy to see. if you can measure progress by traffic james, then, obviously, iraq is moving forward. people on the streets, we went to a college campus that was bustling. but again, russ, passion the week we'res on and the iraqis again take more and more control of the security situation here this question is what is looming over this city-- can the iraqi security forces keep iraq safe? >> mitchell: jim axelrod in baghdad, take care, sir, and thanks a lot. later, what's next for the occupy wall streetheoccupy wall?
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how the credit crunch is affecting small businesses who need loans to expand and hire. and the ongoing fight over the payroll tax which affects every working family in america.
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>> mitchell: president obama appealed to americans today to urge congress to extend the payroll tax before it expires at the end of the year. if they don't, it could lead to tax hikes for millions of meshes. whit johnson has more. >> reporter: if congress fails to extend the payroll tax cut, come january, when 160 million americans could see less money in their paychecks. >> the republicans have refused-- they want to keep in doubt whether the middle class will have a tax cut, hold that
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hostage, to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest people. >> reporter: in large part, the gridlock is over the cut's $120 billion price tag. democrats will want to pay for it through a new tax on millionaires. republicans want federal spending cuts instead. >> republicans are trying to do everything we can to allow american families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn. >> reporter: g.o.p. leaders, who have consistently called for tax cuts, have a problem in their own party. some republicans think it will stimulate the economy. others think it won't. which is why earlier this week, more than half of senate republicans voted against their own bill. still, president obama expects both sides will reach a deal. >> otherwise, congress may not be leaving and we can all spend christmas here together. >> reporter: the white house even posted an interactive calculator on its web site showing how much the current payroll tax cut saves everyday americans. someone making $40,000 a year saves about $1200. households making a combined
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$80,000 save nearly $2500, or roughly $200 per month. >> it happens to be the biggest tax that many american working men and women pay. >> reporter: steve bell, tax analysts at the bipartisan policy center says holding up the payroll tax cut will only further erode the public's faith in congress. >> this is going to be a real noticeable thing. they will not say, "oh, never mind." it's goings to be, "wow, what happened to my paycheck." >> reporter: after each side failed to pass its own bill, democrats and republicans are going back to the drawing world. with just two weeks left before congress hopes to go home. russ. >> mitchell: whit johnson on capitol hill, thanks. japanese auto maker honda is recalling another 273,000 vehicles to fix airbags that may cause injuries by inflating too harshly in the past. this is the fifth recall for the problem since 2008. ahead, banks that will not lend to small businesses.
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>> mitchell: the labor department reported yesterday employers added 120,000 jobs last month, encouraging, but still leaving a long way to go. small businesses play the leading role in job creation, provided they can get the bank loans they need to expand, and that's tonight's "weekend journal." a visit to a business woman who has been finding the credit window shut. >> i don't see a phone number. >> reporter: wisconsin native lisa whiting created a graphic arts business with her autistic daughter in mind. >> i started this company so she'd have an opportunity to have a job and a way to financially support herself. >> reporter: using loans from the county for hiring special needs workers, whiting grew imagination trends, making floor signs and logos for major sports teams and other clients.
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>> we print for stadiums. we print for home use. >> reporter: in 2009, the staff grew from three to 36. >> big signs, big posters, big graphics. >> reporter: whiting met expenses using credit cards and savings and soon had enough orders to grow into a multi-million-dollar business. but then a snag. >> now we have additional orders and additional projects that are huge. now we're putting our hands up in the air because the banks aren't able to lend us the money to buy this additional equipment. >> reporter: whiting discovered that the banks weren't lending because her credit score had suddenly dropped, this despite an on-time payment history with several credit card, which cbs news reviewed. here's what happened with just one account. whiting had been charging $15,000 a month on a bombcredit card with a $15,000 credit limit. during the financial crisis, without warning, that $15,000 limit dropped to $12,000. a red flag that causeher credit score to drop.
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that triggered obama to lower her credit limit further to $8,000, again, lowering her credit score to 544. >> i worked all my life to build a credit rating of 809. the fact that they messed with my credit score when i did nothing wrong, i'm absolutely enraged about that. >> reporter: when asked about whiting's case, bank of america told cbs news, "we continually monitor,s for risk and may adjust customers' lines up or down as appropriate based on their risk profile." >> they looked at me as a potential risk. the computer kicked out a warning that wasn't even really there. >> reporter: in fact, 60% of entrepreneurs say their credit card terms have worsened. >> if i had better access to credit right now, i could buy additional equipment and by the end of 2012, be poig 50 people in a local community that definitely needs job creation. >> mitchell: and it was that local community that finally came through.
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after a year of struggle with the big bankes, a local bank offered the loans she needed. >> we can work around credit scores. we can work around other previous issues as long as there's a-- an action plan. >> how many would you say we've gotten done so far? it's people making decisions about my future, not a computer kicking out statistically if i'm a good risk. >> mitchell: and there's more good news. shortly after cbs news contacted bank of america, the bank called whiting and not only restored her credit card lines but also offered her $10,000 in additional credit. but the question is why did the banks lower her credit lines to begin with? here with some insight is 30-year banking insider marilyn landis, currently the c.e.o. of basic business concepts. marilyn, good evening to you, thanks for coming in. >> good evening, thank you. >> mitchell: you're seeing this more and more. why does this happen? >> lenders have always looked at credit trying to determine what the credit was. what changed is they turned it into a math formula and they gave that math formula to a
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computer. we benefited from this mass-produced credit because they were able to make these lens quickly without people. they were more cost effective. what happened was when we went into the recession, the bankers were looking at the credit risks that they had on their credit reports and they panicked. and what they wanted to do was cut back on their risk. so they did a profile. and they said where are our defaults. >> mitchell: i see. >> and if you fit the profile of the defaults we've had, we're going to start reigning in your credit line so we have less exposure. >> mitchell: is there anything one can do to protect themselves from this happening? >> no, unfortunately, there's not. as long as we live in an era where we're having computer scoring and computer-base decisiondecisions and some banke making million-dollar lens done on credit scoring, so if that's the case and that's what's happening, no. all we can do is look at lenders who will be look at the individual again, getting the people back involved, and studying the computers being in a second position. >> mitchell: marilyn landis, the c.e.o. of basic business
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concepts. thank you so much for your insight.
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>> mitchell: the f.b.i. says california's so-called geezer bandit has struck again. agents say the gunman, who appears to be in his 70s, yesterday held up a bank of america branch in san luis obispo. his 16th bank since 2009. but agents caution the robber may not be as old as he seems and could be wearing a disguise. meanwhile, southern california is being buffeted by more santa ana winds today but they don't compare to the 100-mile-per-hour winds off the mojave desert that battered the state this week. thousands are still without power from the winds that knocked down lines and trees and damaged buildings. britain this week will welcome its first giant pandas in some 17 years. tian tian and yang guang, both
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eight, will be flown tomorrow in a special plane from southwest china to scotland's edinborough zoo, their home for the next 10 years. former south dakota senator and 1972 democratic presidential nominee george mcgovern is in stable condition this evening in a sioux falls hospital after being injured in a fall. the 89-year-old mcgovern hit his head on the pavement when he fell prior to a scheduled television appearance last night. coming up on tonight's cbs evening news, where does occupy with the go from here?
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street >> mitchell: finally this evening, the occupy wall street movement has been pushed off the streets in city after city in recent weeks, raising the question of where it goes next. cynthia bowers has gone in search of the the answer. >> reporter: by week's end, this was all that was left of the occupy l.a. encampment, a spirited tent city now a pile of debris. the occupation may be broken but the movement is not down.
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>> an idea cannot be evicted and a movement cannot be imprisoned. >> reporter: occupy l.a. organizer says the movement will regroup and refocus on foreclosures. >> banks, if you do not heed our call, expect to see our tents in your lobby. >> reporter: two and a half weeks after they were forced out of their encampment here at zapp, protesters still gather daily. today they are celebrating their movement. in new york, occupy wall street has left the street and gone legit. they've rented office space and meet daily in a public atrium inside disha bank. >> we have elevated inequality and social justice. >> reporter: it plans to occupy foreclosured homes. in mid-january, a call to pitch tents outside of congress. >> i want to stay inside the capitol. >> berkeley political science
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graduate student josh green says the next step is to turn the protest movement into a political movement. with his web site, he's hoping to recruit candidates to run for office. >> until you get an occupy candidate, someone who identifies with the movement out there, you're not really going to get those issues talked about. >> reporter: holding on to encampments like this one proved too difficult for the occupy movement. a political organization could as well, especially for a movement that pride itself on being decentralized. cynthia bourque cbs news, new york. >> mitchell: and that is the cbs evening news. later on cbs, "48 hours mystery of the. thanks for joining us this saturday evening. i'm russ mitchell at the cbs broadcast center in new york. i'll see you back here tomorrow. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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a community pulling for a wounded little boy... how people are trying to help bring the toddler home. and a wind- whipped fire -- lights up the night sky... the damage left behind in one bay area county. cbs five eyewitness news is next. good evening, i'm ann good evening, i'm ann notarangelo. notarangelo. keurig has a wide variety of gourmet coffee and tea to choose from. keurig is the way to brew fresh, delicious coffee in under a minute. way to brew.

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